The temperature in Africa rises too high

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The bloodbath at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine in South Africa is above all
an appalling tragedy for the families of the striking miners killed by
police. But it also has much wider implications.

London-listed Lonmin had taken a hard line on the strikers, who had been
demanding a massive pay increase. The company had issued an ultimatum
warning that the workers would be sacked if they did not return to work
yesterday.

But the roots of the dispute lie in the challenge by a radical new mining
union to the dominance of the National Union of Mineworkers, a key supporter

It is understandable that the construction of an air-polluting,
noise-blighting £22 billion third runway to turn Heathrow into the world’s
pre-eminent superhub caught the eye, but the Davies report into airport
expansion also made another radical suggestion: that — third runway or not —
Heathrow should start acting like the UK hub that it pretends to be